Cassavetes on Cassavetes

by John Cassavetes

Book Overview

John Cassavetes is the godfather of American independent cinema, saluted by virtually every US maverick who's followed in his stead, from Martin Scorsese to Sean Penn. Since his death in 1989,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0006TZPXC
• ISBN13: 9780571201570
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

As brilliant as it gets!

Absolutely necessary reading for those interested in American alternative cinema and not only. The book gives a brilliant picture of USA's one of the best directors ever. Highly recommended for everyone. No other book shows Cassavetes in this light. Packed with interesting material, as good as Cassavetas' cinema itself.

Truly inspirational!

Ray Carney's "Cassavetes on Cassavetes" is a wonderful introduction to Cassavetes' work. I found it to be a great read - amazingly free of academic jargon or fancy terminology. It was hard to put down! And with incredible photos of the wild-man at work. A must for every fan of indie film as well as aspiring directors and artists - and also for students of life! If you want to know even more, I'd also recommend Ray Carney's massive web site devoted to Cassavetes and indie film. Any search engine will take you there. It has wonderful behind-the-scenes information about the making of Cassavetes' work. If you want a volume to provide ongoing daily inspiration and encouragement regarding the artistic process, buy this book. It is a book you will go back to again and again and again...

Possibly the best book about any director.

My half-hearted browser's interest in Cassavetes needed a kick in the seat of the pants, I now realize, and reading this book shows me how much I failed to appreciate him while we were lucky enough to have him around. The format is eye-opening. Cassavetes speaks, and then the author. The constantly shifting P.O.V., and the frisson between the truth Cassavetes himself presented, and the unvarnished truth as discovered by the author, makes this book constantly stimulating and endlessly arguable.Cassavetes life and films are worth a serious look-see -- and this book is an EXCELLENT place to begin that-- if only because he is that rare individual who absolutely refused to accept mediocrity in himself and others, both as an artist and a committed liver of life. He went for the burn every time out, and could often be an ornery s.o.b. when he detected that people were simply going through the motions in their life or art. (The book is rife with anecdotes that literally make you wince and leave you wondering "Could I have long tolerated this behavior in a friend or family member?") He seems never to have thought "I'd better not burn my bridges here", or practiced any of the other forms of incremental, over-thought cowardice that most of us do. Cassavetes was driven like no one else; he never made a lazy, easy commercial film. He let his life and films commingle, letting the cameras roll for hours, shooting thousands of feet more film than he could use, afterward sculpting it into a shape that could be released. (He said film stock was the one part of his film making on which he would never scrimp.) His films were, probably more than any other director's, explorations of life.Cassavetes lived life so completely that it might be truthful to say he did something the average person would call foolhardy nearly every day of his life, in some way or other. But in spite of this, or because of it, it's impossible to come away from this book without an awakened admiration for him.

Fascinating Look at America's Most Advanced Filmmaker

A superb autobiography pieced together from spoken interviews. Carney neither fawns over Cassavetes (as he sometimes has done in the past), nor does he paint an unqualified portrait of a dark, tortured soul (as most artist biographies tend to do).Instead, Carney gives us insight into a new type of artistic genius, one whose life may not have been rife with passionate love affairs and bouts of madness, but was nevertheless rich and intense. A man whose artistic goal was not to tap the furthest depths of his soul, but instead to revel in the sheer awkwardness, goofiness, and comedy of lived experience.An eye-opening experience.

A Consciousness-Shifting Treasure

Well, Ray Carney has done it again: years of research have culminated in a wonderful examination of Cassavetes, by Cassavetes: his life and work. Carney's takes on the important independent filmmaker's mischief, guts, growth and ups and downs are inspirational. You get a deep look here at a way of living, working and risking that is not about the ambition, power or money so prevalent in the American film industry. Carney carefully lets Cassavetes tell the story in his own words, chronologically following the director's experiences from his childhood to his early career struggles to his groundbreaking independent films. There is much new information. Throughout, family and love are front and center: these were so deeply important to Cassavetes and were primary themes in his films. I also take away from this book a new inspiration to try to find a way to live and work that places things like security, conformity and acceptance in a more healthy perspective. Anyone contemplating the arts, film theory or technique, criticism, or just personal or professional growth should read this book. It is a delightful, consciousness-shifting walk through another way to be creative and just to be.